A VERY MYSTICAL MYSTERY

Supernatural forces and the ghosts of the past are at work in BBC1’s spooky psychological thriller series Dublin Murders

Now there’s a chill in the air and the nights are drawing in, it’s the perfect time for a spooky mystery – and Dublin Murders is certainly that. It’s a police drama with a difference – there are dark forces at work, the ghosts of the past, sordid secrets and a cast of freakish suspects.

Based on two of the stories in the bestselling Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French, the eight-part series has been woven together by scriptwriter Sarah Phelps, who adapted the three Agatha Christie dramas we’ve seen on BBC1 over the past few years. ‘Dublin Murders is part psychological thriller, part police investigation with a shiver of modern gothic,’ says Sarah. ‘It’s about the terrible things we do when we think no one can see us.’

The story is told over two connecting timelines. On a hot August day in 1985, 13-year-old friends Peter, Jamie and Adam ride their bikes into the lu s h K n o ck n a r e e woods outside Dublin and something awful happens. Only Adam is found, screaming hysterically. His friends have completely vanished and Adam has no memory of what or who has taken them.

On another hot August day 21 years later, archaeologists are working in the woods when they make the grim discovery of a 13year-old girl’s body on an ancient altar stone. Detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox ( Killian Scott and Sarah Greene), best friends and keepers of each other’s secrets, are given the task of finding out who the murderer is.

Both Reilly and Maddox have their own reasons for wanting to stay away from Knocknaree woods, and they quickly find it revives ghosts they can’t escape. ‘Rob has a very troubled past,’ says Killian, who played the lead role of preacher Seth in the Netflix Depression-era drama Damnation. ‘He and Cassie are fractured individuals who try to keep that at bay by focusing on their professional lives. But over the course of the series you see the layers beneath crack open.’

The victim is quickly identi

fied as Katy, a promising young ballerina, but a visit to break the news of her death to her parents leaves more questions than answers. Very quickly, though, the disappearances in 1985 and the murder in 2006 are linked and everyone in the nearby village becomes a suspect. But before the detectives have made any headway, a new body is found...

Sarah, who was in Sky’s horror series Penny Dreadful, says the mystical aspect makes the show unique. ‘Cassie’s suffered a huge trauma, so there are two sides of her personality and she’s fighting her dark side. As soon as I started reading the script I couldn’t stop, and I think the audience will be just as intrigued as I was.’